It has recently been established in our laboratories that volatile compounds which exist as a racemic modification of enantiomers may sometimes be resolved into the separate enantiomers by mixing the racemate with a volatile, optically-active resolving agent and introducing the mixture onto a gas chromatography column. In the course of passage through the column, the enantiomers are both resolved from each other and separated from the resolving agent, thus offering a direct method of preparing optically active materials from the corresponding racemates. As different enantiomers may have quite different physiological properties, the ability to separate enantiomers is of considerable importance in health related research. It is, therefore, proposed here to further develop this novel method of resolution. The objective of the research proposed is to establish the generality of the method for resolving enantiomers of several important classes of organic molecules and to establish guidelines for choosing each of the chromatographic parameters found to affect the success of a resolution when applying the method to a new resolution. The research will be undertaken in two cycles each of which will include a phase directed toward determining the guidelines and a phase directed toward exploring the generality of the method. In the first cycle, the parameters affecting each of three carefully chosen, known resolutions will be determined and the optimum practical value for each parameter determined. These values will be applied in a limited exploration of the scope of the method. Which of a small group of resolving agents best resolves each of a somewhat larger group of racemates will be determined. In the second cycle, optimum practical values for the chromatographic parameters found to affect a number of resolutions chosen from the broadened scope will be determined. These additional guidelines will then be used in an attempt to broaden the scope to include resolutions that have proven particularly difficult in earlier studies and some which are particularly desirable to effect for other reasons.